


Sound the Retreat

by WithYouTillTheEndOfTheShield



Series: Radio Silence [2]
Category: Alien Series, Aliens (1986)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 10:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3689349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithYouTillTheEndOfTheShield/pseuds/WithYouTillTheEndOfTheShield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dana watches the Marines from the safety of the APC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sound the Retreat

She doesn't know what's worse - being out there in the thick of the gunfight and risking your life, or being stuck in the safety of the APC and having to watch the danger unfold, helpless to stop it. 

Gorman's sat there, staring at the screen's blankly as he hears Hudson and Hicks calling out to each other, both men reading off their scanners. 

"There's nothing back here." She hears Hicks call. 

"Look, I'm telling you!" Hudson's starting to sound desperate. "There's something moving here, and it ain't us!"

Dana looks over to Ripley, and then to Gorman. "Gorman, she's right. Pull them out of there."

"They're Marines, Miss Mitchell." He says calmly. "They know what they're doing."

"Do _you_?" She snaps. He's about to respond when they hear a scream. Dietrich's heart rate goes crazy, and her camera angle jolts around. Everything in the screen is moving, like she's being yanked upwards by something. Flames cover multiple screens - Dietrich's, Frost's, Hicks' and Wierzbowski's. 

"Frost!" Someone yells, she thinks it's Hicks. 

Frost's camera is engulfed by flames, and his heart rate is up over 160. And then he flatlines. 

"Jesus Christ Gorman, pull them out!" She yells, checking Adams' screen. Her heart rate is up, but thank God her screen is still fine. She's running, and in the monitor Dana sees Hudson's terrified face appear. Good, they're together. 

A blast rocks multiple cameras, and her grip on the bench in front tightens as Hicks' heart rate leaps up. His camera blacks out for a second as he's thrown into something by the blast. Beside his monitor, Crowe flatlines.

"Jesus Christ Apone, what is _happening_?" Gorman yells, in a desperate attempt to get the Sargent's attention. No-one's answering him. They've got bigger things to worry about than going up the chain of command. 

Hicks appears in Hudson's monitor briefly. "Weirzbowski and Crowe are down!"

It's like a nightmare, Dana thinks, except it's real. The terror she's feeling is real. Hicks and Adams could die down there, and she's stuck here in the APC, watching them. Christ. 

Hicks is yelling Weirzbowski's name, and she checks his monitor. Yes, he's dying too - his screen is crackling out into static and his heart rate is too high. She can hear him screaming. 

"Gorman -"

"Let's rock!" She hears a voice - unmistakably Vasquez's. Gunfire bursts across her screen, and Drake's too.  _Fuck_. 

"Who's firing? God dammit, I ordered them to hold fire!" Gorman's sweating, his hands shaking at the controls as he searches the screens for the source of gunfire. She almost feels sorry for him - his second combat mission and he's been thrown into this - before remembering that her  _best friend's life_  is in his hands. And he has no idea how to deal with it. 

Adams is laying down short bursts of fire with her flamethrower, her heart rate racing but not above normal for combat. She gets off on this adrenaline. She's living the combat life right now. 

 _Hicks_. Where's Hicks?

Christ, she can barely make out what's going on in his monitor. Her heart is pounding painfully hard in her chest. He  _can't_ die. 

"They're comin' out of the god damn walls, man!" Hudson cries, and she nearly rips Gorman's earpiece out and beats the shit out of him with it right there and then. 

He swallows hard, trying to regain his composure. "Apone? I want you to lay down a suppressing fire w-with the incinerators, and fall back by squads to the APC."

Dana stares at him, dumbfounded. "Are you reading that from a fucking manual?!"

"Vasquez, Drake, hold your fire, goddammit!" The Sargent roars. It's clear he hasn't heard. After swallowing hard again, Gorman repeats his idiotic order. Fuck protocol, they're dying in there. He should be ordering a plain retreat. 

"Say again. All after incinerator." 

Oh God, they're going to die. Dana turns away from the monitor as Gorman repeats the order, just as calmly as before. And then she hears the yell. 

She spins back, watching Apone's monitor haze out. "Apone!"

Hicks is yelling too, somewhere in the Hive. Gorman's sitting, staring blankly at the screen, true fear starting to creep up on him, seep into his voice. "Apone? Talk to me..."

Oh God. Adams is by Hicks now, she can see her in his monitor. The woman is firing bursts of flame up above her, but those _things_  are still managing to crawl around her side. Hudson is keeping them at bay as best he can, but they're both going to run out of fuel sooner or later. 

The marines are lost, scattered around the Hive. There aren't many left, maybe seven or eight of the original team. And oh  _God_ there are too many of those things left. 

"Apone?" Gorman's voice is weak, shaking. " _Talk to me_."

"He's gone!" Ripley yells, staring at the monitors in horror. Even Burke is sickened by what he's watching. Dana's clutching at the desk, a hot lump of tears forming at the back of her throat. 

They're yelling, calling out to each other, trying to determine who's still alive. In the APC all she can hear is the high pitched buzz of flatlines. Too many of them are dead. "Get them out of there!"

Ripley's screaming too. "Get them out!"

If Gorman had been panicking before, it's nothing compared to what he's going through now. "Shut up, both of you, shut up!"

"Hicks!" Dana screams through the headset, "Adams!"

Ripley's trying to talk through her own headset. "Whoever's left, get the hell out of there!"

"Just  _shut up_!" Gorman yells, ripping the headset from Ripley. 

"God-dammit!" She screams. 

Hicks and Adams appear in Hudson's camera. "Where's Apone?"

She hears Hudson's voice, sees his terrified face twice on Adams and Hicks' monitors. "The Sarge is dead, get the fuck outta here!"

"Hudson?" Gorman's trembling in his seat. "Vasquez? Adams?" 

"Hudson,  _look out_!" Hicks yells, and Dana watches, horrified, as he and Adams begin firing at one of the creatures, Hicks with his shotgun, and Adams with a pistol she's stashed away. The dying screams of the Alien grate her ears, and she winces. 

"Hicks, Hicks?" Gorman's shaking his head, eyes wide. "I told them to fall back. I told them to fall back..."

"They're cut off!" She snarls, as Ripley grabs the front of his shirt. 

"Do something!"

Dana looks to the controls of the APC. She's driven one of these before, albeit illegally on Earth when her father was supposed to be inspecting a Marine Corp. She was also sixteen. 

It's better than nothing. She rips her headset off, tossing it down next to Ripley's and pushing past Burke. "Ripley, get Newt in that seat!"

She throws herself down into the driver's seat of the APC, and yanks the levers harshly, slamming her foot on the accelerator. The noise of the engine alerts Gorman, and she hears him yell her name. "Mitchell, what the hell are you doing?!"

Funnily enough, that was exactly what her father said when she returned the stolen one back to base after her joyride. He had _not_ been happy.  

Gorman appears in the Cabin, trying to wrench the controls from her hands as she pushes up. "Turn this thing around!"

The APC scrapes against a nearby wall as a result, and they both wince at the sound of metal grinding on metal. She tries to throw Gorman off. "Gorman, fuck off!"

Luckily, Burke and Ripley appear in the cabin too, pulling the Lieutenant off her and forcing him against the far wall. She hears Burke berating him, "You had your chance, Gorman."

 God, these controls are more difficult when you're sober. The APC careens around corners, clipping walls and knocking over odd bits of scrap metal on its way.  

She bites back the scream that threatens to rip through her throat as they crash through some kind of barricade - whether man made or an Alien creation, she can't tell. "Open the doors!"

Hicks, supporting a limping Hudson, appears around the front of the APC. He glances up quickly, catches her eye, and Jesus does he look shocked to see her at the controls. She shoots him a hurried glance, before pressing her face to the glass, checking for Adams. Christ, she can't see her. 

And then she appears, backing up with her flamethrower in one hand, pistol in the other. She's taking down Aliens left and right, stepping over dead bodies almost easily as she makes her way around the front of the APC. She too looks up to the drivers' compartment, and see's Dana. Instead of looking surprised, she simply grins - of course, she was the other person in that other APC with Dana all those years ago. 

She can hear people scrambling into the APC behind her, can hear Hudson's groan as Hicks dumps him on the floor, can hear Adams stumble a little as she knocks over a box of something or other. She hears Vasquez enter, hears Drake's gunfire as he approaches. 

And then she hears a man yelling, screaming in agony, and heart beats just a little bit faster because  _please don't let that be Hicks_. And then she hears Vasquez screaming " _No_!"

"Fire in the hold!" She hears Hudson yell, and resists the urge to turn back to the main area. She has to stay at the controls. 

She can hear yelling - Hicks and Vasquez arguing about Drake. Good, if they're arguing it means they aren't dead. She calls out for Adams, checking that the other woman is definitely inside and safe. 

"I'm here, Dana!"

She grabs the controls, wrenching them into reverse. Christ they're stiff, and heavy too. And then, a struggle. Hicks is yelling. "Get on the God damn door!"

More struggling, and  _Jesus Christ_ she hopes one of those things isn't in here with them. And then, Hicks' voice again. "Eat this!"

She hears his shotgun, the  _bang_ reverberating around the APC, and then she hears a scream, and Adams' voice. "Hudson!" _  
_

Hicks is calling to her. "Dana! Go, go!"

Her foot's down on the accelerator straight away, and the whole APC jerks into motion. She backs them up, out the way they came, before hitting the brakes. She hears the others falling about in the compartment behind as she pulls the levers again to set them back into forward motion. And then they're off, down the next corridor. 

She hears something, that now-familiar screech, and looks up just in time. One of those things crashes through the windshield, and broken glass flies around her face, getting caught in her hair and clothes. She screams, flattening herself against the seat as it's claws swipe at the air, inches from her face. She slams on the brakes again, pitying those behind her who are getting thrown around. 

The alien falls off the APC, rolling to the floor a good ten feet away. She hits the accelerator, praying that this thing isn't somehow stronger than the four tons of metal that are heading towards it.

It isn't. She mows it down almost effortlessly, it's dying scream somehow satisfying to her as she continues on, heading for the exit. She can hear her blood rushing in her ears, can feel her heart pounding against her ribcage. This is nothing like the joy ride. This is fear, life or death fear. 

Her hands are locked in place as she drives towards the door, and she braces herself just before the APC smashes through it. She just about registers yelling and blind panic behind her as they drive over rocky terrain. She doesn't take her foot off the accelerator. They aren't safe, not yet. Those things are still behind them. 

"Dana!" She hears Hicks, hears his voice beside her, shouting over the wind from outside. His hand lowers down over hers on the throttle, completely covering it. "We're alright, we're clear! Dana, you've blown the trans-axle, you're just grinding metal! Come on now, ease down. Ease down. Ease down." Slowly, gently, he pushes down on her hand, guiding her to a halt in the APC. her hands are shaking underneath his, and in the moment of calm he leans on the controls, looking at her. "Dana?"

She can't take her eyes away from the barren, rocky planet in front of her. Can't take her hands off the controls either. She feels sick. 

Hicks gently pries her hands off the controls. "You're okay. You're okay now." When she doesn't respond, he touches the tips of two fingers to the underside of her chin, tipping her head up to look at him. "You're alright now. You got us clear. We're safe."

She launches herself at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her nose into the crook of his neck, glad for the comforting warmth that radiates from his body. He chuckles, but his arms wrap around her all the same. "You're gonna be fine, Dana. Nothing's going to happen to you."

"I feel sick." She mumbles into his neck. He nods, tentatively cupping her back and the back of her head. 

"That's the adrenaline." He assures her. "You're safe."

"Promise?"

There's a pause. "I promise."


End file.
